Wonsik had never really had money, but he wasn’t broke and homeless. He just…..wasn’t rich enough for heroes to give a damn about him. The heroes never seemed to give much of a damn about people like him, not unless there was a good photo opportunity in it for them. Something that could make them look good.

Maybe that was why he’d never thought twice about throwing his support behind the Twin Flames.

He’d opened his door to the brothers without hesitation. He’d smiled warmly and offered up his apartment again after Taekwoon had joined them. He’d cooked them dinner when Woojin showed up to heal Jisung. He would have been there to welcome Chan and Felix, but his apartment was destroyed by a hero a few months before hand.

“Such bull,” Wonsik muttered as he dug through a trashcan.

The stupid ‘hero’ didn’t want to pay for rebuilding his building. The er’s management had scoffed when Wonsik tried to confront them about it, told him exactly what he already knew; no one cared about poor people. The ‘hero’ had done so much good that no one would listen to someone like Wonsik. If he still tried to talk, well……..Wonsik didn’t have a clean history. A minor drug charge or two could easily turn into something more…….image tarnishing.

Honestly, Wonsik didn’t know why he expected anything less. He’d considered using his powers on them, considered making them feel bad about what they had done to him and everyone else who had lived in the building, but that would only get him into trouble. He could picture the headlines way too easily.

Wonsik had done what anyone would do; give up. He put together a small bag of what he could salvage and took to living on the streets. It wasn’t okay. It was horrible and he hated it, but it could have been worse. Of course the universe apparently had heard that thought and decided to make it worse by giving south Korea an early, cold winter. Wonsik had known that he’d have to find a warm place eventually, but……that was eventually, he hadn’t gotten anything in place yet!

Now….now he was going to freeze to death.

“Hey,” a voice called from the mouth of the alley, “what are you doing?”

“Nothing that concerns you!” Wonsik snapped, turning to glare at the person only to freeze when he saw who it was, “S-Sanghyuk?”

“Wonsik?” Sanghyuk blinked in confusion, “what are you doing out here at this time of night? And….and what’s up with your clothes?” He looked Wonsik over harder, “are…….Wonsik…..what happened?”

“Can we…..can we talk about this someplace else?” Wonsik asked, hating the concern he felt from Sanghyuk since the other man had enough to worry about, “someplace warm?”

--

“Oh my god!” Felix yelled, forgetting his Korean in his anger, “that…..that…..that is such bull! How can you even do something like that to someone and not even think twice about it!”

“Not shocking,” Taekwoon huffed, “sad as it is to say.”

“So you really don’t have any place to go?” Woojin asked, making sure that Wonsik got the lion’s share of the meal he’d cooked.

“No,” Wonsik sighed, “and it’s gotten so cold out recently, I…….”

“You can stay with us, “Sanghyuk said, “This building is our permanent base of operations now. It’s clearly got room for one more.”

Sanghyuk had recently gotten sick of living out of a suitcase, so he’d found the group a place to stay for good. The others were pretty sure that Sanghyuk wasn’t actually sick of it, he just wanted Chan and Felix to have a permanent home for once. The place he’d found them was an old apartment building. It was kind of on the run down side, but nothing that couldn’t be fixed. The owner was a friend, so they got to rent the whole building super cheap. That didn’t mean that they actually paid that amount though, they always slipped the owner a few extra bucks. They also fixed the place up bit by bit out of their own pocket.

“I couldn’t ask you to do that,” Wonsik replied, “it’s too much.”

“You’ve given us a place to sleep how many times?” Jisung spoke up, “and yet this is too much? Dude, we’re just repaying the favor.”

“You can help me at the bar, too,” Woojin suggested, “I could use the help.”

The woman who’d run the bar where Taekwoon met the Han brothers had been badly hurt because of a hero. When she revealed that she couldn’t run her bar anymore, Sanghyuk felt it was only right to help her out as thanks for all she had done for them. Even though she’d signed the whole thing over to the group, Sanghyuk insisted that half of their profits went to her. She had medication to pay for after all.

“You can use your paycheck to pay us back,” Sanghyuk offered, noticing that the other was still a little hesitant, “and you can use your power to help us. I know Felix has nightmares that Chan can’t always help him with.” Felix nodded in agreement at that. He didn’t know what Wonsik’s power was, but anything that could help him get away from his nightmares was welcome.

“Ok,” Wonsik finally nodded, “ok.”

A/N: another member of the group who doesn’t have a horrible, painful backstory. It’s nice to have that show up haha. I was worried that giving them a whole apartment building was a little much, but then I got to thinking and it seemed fine. I mean, it’s not that big of a building (it IS on the poor, tyer side of the city) and they’re gonna end up with a bunch of members. Now the bar was kind of a no-brainer. They were already using it so much, why not just give it to them. Gives them a way to make money too, so they aren’t relying on others for every little thing.

K, so. I wanted to do this yesterday, but I just couldn’t get my thoughts straight. I’ve had more time to think about what I want to say so: Stan Lee. He was……., he still is amazing. Like, I’m a big Marvel fan, I’ve connected with Marvel characters and story lines so much over the years. And he…..he’s a massive reason why any of those characters and stories exist. Without him I don’t think Marvel would exist the way it currently does. When I heard that Stan Lee had passed away……..I was shocked. It’s one of those things that…….you know it’s gonna happen one day ‘cuz he is human and human die but…….at the same time…….he’s Stan Lee. He’s such an amazing person that…….someone like that doesn’t just die.

I…..I’m looking at all my Marvel movies and POP! Figures right now and……..kind of tearing up a bit as I think “one of the biggest reasons why any of this exists is gone now.” And…..and isn’t Stan Lee the last of the old guard of comics? With him……haven’t we also lost our last living tie to that time period? There’s something so…….sad about that. About the reminder of time changing and things being lost to time.

When the late, great Monty Oum passed away, many of us in the Rooster Teeth community took a lot of comfort in this line from the RT web show Red vs Blue:

“If you don’t say goodbye, then you aren’t really gone. You just aren’t here right now.”

I like to think that, just like Monty, Stan Lee isn’t really gone ‘cuz he didn’t say goodbye. He’s just not here right now. And when we see him again, he’s going to have tons of new ideas that he can’t wait to share with the world. Haha I bet those two creative geniuses are getting along great on the other side, bouncing their endless ideas off of each other. When we join ‘em, I think we’re gonna be blown away by what they’ve done. Haha maybe they’ve dragged Wes Craven (creator of Freddy Krueger) and Christopher Lee into those crazy ideas too haha.